Adventures in Agriculture

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Ryan’s Back!

It is so nice having Ryan back. Today went so smoothly. Utterly stress free! He is never allowed to take a vacation ever again. At least for the next six months while I am here.

Steve went to pick up the meat while Ryan and I set about sorting cows. We needed to pull several cull cows for slaughter, as well as 131 who will be the star of West Nantmeal Township’s Cow Pie Bingo Fundraiser. She is the sweetest and friendliest cow we have and luckily she doesn’t have a calf at the moment (she had a calf last fall so that worked out perfectly).

As usual, I was nervous about sorting cows. I’m getting better at working groups, but sorting is still tough. There are just so many things you have to pay attention to all at once. We ran everyone into the barn and went from there. I had the list with the numbers of cows we could and couldn’t pull. The plan was to run the cows we wanted to cull into a pen. We’d hold them there while we let everyone else back out then put the cull cows back in the barn until we could move them out to the finishing pasture. I called out numbers and helped Ryan find the cows we wanted. He worked them away from the group and towards the gate I was guarding. My job was to not let anyone else out, but also to get out of the way in time to let the cows we did want through.

Everything went perfectly. We pulled seven cows (including 131 so only six will go to slaughter over the next few weeks) and I didn’t let anyone through who wasn’t supposed to get through. Ryan said I did well and no one – cows or people – got worked up. In my world, that counts as a success.